Avicii

“My dad has always been a big Ray Charles fan, and I've grown up listening to all kinds of music.”

“I've tried plenty of telephones. I tried to get into the Samsung Galaxy and the Blackberry, but the iPhone is just too easy to use. The camera takes clear pictures and the phone itself looks great. Like all Apple products, it kind of just makes sense.”

“I grew up listening to a lot of Ray Charles and '60s rock, thanks to my father, and then my brothers got me in to KISS and whatnot, so I guess that's where I got my first taste for music.”

“I guess I think like deep inside, I know that it's like, it's a different kind of performing, it's not really... You're not performing like a guitar player or a singer is performing, you know what I mean? So it's weird to be in the same type setup as one of those. 'Cause I'm not really doing much, you know, like technically it's not that hard.”

“I've always worn a lot of Ralph Lauren, and plaid shirts in general have been a signature piece for me. With plaid, you can look super-relaxed or you can look a bit dressed up.”

“When I started working on electronic music, that was after the rave period. I haven't even seen that part of it that much.”

“I have always been mainstream. It's so weird, because I don't see it as something negative at all. So many people see it as something negative.”

“I'm good at melody - I'll write the top-line melody and ideal words I want to go with it. But I'm not that good at writing lyrics. I bounce those back and forth with songwriters or someone who can sing.”

“I've always had a fascination with making your own music but never have been skilled enough to play the instrument, so to be able to make music without the ability was awesome.”

“I always just sit down at the piano and make the main hook - what I want the track to be about melodically - and then I'll build everything else around that. But growing up, I did not play any instruments.”

“Dance music is like a virus: it has affected so many different genres.”

“I'm a DJ. I get the party started.”

“I would never lay down a pre-programmed set and perform to a pre-mixed CD; I would never cheat my fans like that.”

“I have a hard time writing music when I'm on tour.”

“It's hard - some people get inspired by a feeling, but I'm mostly inspired by melodies.”

“There's always haters, no matter what you're doing - whether they're complaining that everything you do sounds the same, or it's too different.”

“When I started out, I was Avici with one i. But on MySpace, that name was taken.”

“I love finding out-of-the-box inspirations and blending them with what I've done in the past. And when I started to experiment with genres, it didn't sound forced. Maybe that's because it's all music that I listened to growing up, and it's all music that I love.”

“A friend of mine told me a bunch of stuff on Buddhism and about Avicii being the lowest level of Buddhist hell, and it just sort of got stuck in my head. Later on when I went to setup a MySpace, I tried a bunch of names and they were all taken so I just kind of ended up with Avicii and then I got really attached to it.”

“I think I am a pretty good judge of character in general and try to surround myself with the best people I can.”